Written Impromptu upon Returning to My Hometown
Ho Chih-chang (659–744)
I left home as a youth and am returning an old man—
The sounds of my hometown have not changed,
yet the hair on my temples is receding;
The children look at me but do not recognize me—
Laughing, they ask, “Guest, where have you come from?”
Translated by Victor H. Mair
From the lower Yangtze valley, Ho Chih-chang was a high official in the capital, Ch’ang-an, who befriended the young Li Po (see selection 35) and became a boon drinking companion of the latter.